Towns discuss how to pay for school resource officers

A father picks up his daughter early Thursday afternoon for an appointment. Cape Carteret wants the school resource officer back at White Oak Elementary and all Carteret elementary schools.

Chuck Beckley/The Daily News

By JANNETTE PIPPIN - Daily News Staff

Published: Friday, January 25, 2013 at 10:09 AM.

Calls for additional school resource officers have surfaced in Carteret County in recent weeks, raising questions of how to pay for them.

Commissioners in the Town of Cape Carteret adopted a resolution at their Jan. 21 meeting that asks that Carteret County put school resource officers in all elementary and primary schools in the county.

Mayor Dave Fowler said the resolution was in response to comments from parents and leaders from White Oak Elementary School at the town board’s workshop the previous week.

“During the work session, we received a letter from the principal, and a contingency from the school’s PTO spoke during the public comment period and asked that the town reinstitute the school resource officer at White Oak Elementary,” he said.

Their request to the board came a month after a mass shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

The Cape Carteret action also followed on the heels of similar concerns raised in Newport, where there have been increased police calls to schools in the town since the loss of a school resource officer due to funding cuts.

Calls for additional school resource officers have surfaced in Carteret County in recent weeks, raising questions of how to pay for them.

Commissioners in the Town of Cape Carteret adopted a resolution at their Jan. 21 meeting that asks that Carteret County put school resource officers in all elementary and primary schools in the county.

Mayor Dave Fowler said the resolution was in response to comments from parents and leaders from White Oak Elementary School at the town board’s workshop the previous week.

“During the work session, we received a letter from the principal, and a contingency from the school’s PTO spoke during the public comment period and asked that the town reinstitute the school resource officer at White Oak Elementary,” he said.

Their request to the board came a month after a mass shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

The Cape Carteret action also followed on the heels of similar concerns raised in Newport, where there have been increased police calls to schools in the town since the loss of a school resource officer due to funding cuts.

While there is support for having school resources on school campuses, the ongoing question is how to pay for them.

Fowler said the town provided the bulk of the funding for the Cape Carteret police officer who served as the past school resource officer at White Oak Elementary with the Town of Cedar Point contributing $2,000.

Due to ongoing staffing at the town police department, it hasn’t been able to maintain a resource officer this year.

Fowler said he fully supports having the school resource officers at all the elementary school and believes it can be done through collaboration.

After reviewing enrollment statistics for White Oak Elementary, Fowler said the town sees sharing in the cost with others, including the county.

He said town officials were surprised to find that only 22.5 percent of the school’s nearly 800 students live within the town. And while children from Cape Carteret, Cedar Point and Emerald Isle make up about 60 percent of the student body, the other 40 percent come from outlying locations such as county areas along N.C. 24 and N.C. 58.

“We’re willing to do our share but we expect others to step up to the plate and do their part,” he said.

Commissioners in the Town of Newport haven’t made a formal request for a school resource officer but town officials did meet last week with representatives from the county and the school system to make them aware of their concerns.

Town Manager Dick Casey said that due to funding cuts at the county level there has not been a school resource officer at Newport Middle School for nearly three years.

Since then, the police department has responded to an increased number of calls to the middle school as well as other schools in town.

Casey said that without an SRO, there’s no one on campus to respond to those calls, pulling officers off their patrol. And the SRO presence can help deter incidents on campus.

“We are hoping that once all the entities involved have had a chance to digest the information there will be discussion of how to mitigate the problem, whether it’s with a SRO or some other action,” Casey said.

County Manager Russell Overman said last week’s meeting with Newport representatives was informational only, and the county has just received the resolution from the Town of Cape Carteret.

He said they’ll wait for direction from the county commissioners on how to address the town’s request. He said they could discuss the issue at an upcoming meeting, address funding during budget discussions or possibly send it to the Board of Education for consideration.

The school board contracts with the sheriff’s office and Morehead City Police Department to put SROs at the three high schools using state funds.